Thin Out Revisions Plugin

Abstract

As its default behavior, WordPress makes a new revision when you update your post.
This also happens when you do a preview before publication.
This is too often even if you like revision control. Thin Out Revisions (TOR), a plugin
for WordPress, will help you to keep unwanted revisions out.

Basic Feature

You can remove intermediate revisions during comparing in ‘compare two revisions’ mode in revision.php. To do it, simply press the ‘Thin Out’ button (fig. 1 in the screenshots page).
And you can also remove each single revision from the Edit Post/Page screen (fig. 2).

WordPress 3.5 and prior, which have an old revision screen, are no longer supported.

When you publish a post

If you are a careful author, I guess you have many revisions as a result of preview checks.
TOR can clean them when you first publish your post.
Just simply enable the following option in the ‘Settings’ – ‘Thin Out Revisions’ admin page (fig. 3).

• Delete revisions on initial publication

Bulk erase of old revisions

You can remove old revisions on the fly or daily as a scheduled task (fig. 3).

Revision Memo

The Revision Memo feature enables you to put a short text note on revisions. See the pictures (fig. 4, 5) in screenshots page.
Make sure that you check the ‘Revision Memo’ screen option in Edit Post (Edit Page) screen.

More to Describe

• TOR works fine in multisite environment.

If you like it, please share it among your friends by doing Tweet or Like from the plugin home page.
It will encourage the author a lot.

Related Links:

• Plugin Homepage
• Japanese Homepage

You can install Thin Out Revisions in a standard manner.

1. Go to Plugins – Add New page of your WordPress and install Thin Out Revisions plugin.
2. Or unzip thin-out-revisions.*.zip to your /wp-content/plugins/ directory. The asterisk is a version number.

Don’t forget to activate the plugin before use it.

1. 

   fig. 1. The 'Thin Out' button to remove intermediate revisions.

2. 

   fig. 2. A button to remove a single revision.

3. 

   fig. 3. Options. You can remove old revisions on the fly or periodically.

4. 

   fig. 4. Memos are displayed with brackets.

5. 

   fig. 5. You can use a editor to update old memos.

I got a warning to save the post without modification. What does it mean?

From WordPress 3.6, proper posts have a copy revision of the current post.
Without a copy revision, updating a post results in loss of current content.
So when TOR find a post without copy revision, it will warn you to create a copy.

I pressed the ‘Remove NOW’ button. But it seemed it’s not working.

This plugin is using wp_cron even if you press the ‘Remove NOW’ button. When you press it, the plugin just schedule a task to delete revisions as an immediate wp_cron task. And it will take a while until the task is completed.

So please wait a while after you press the button.

Where is revision.php?

You can go to revision.php by choosing a revision on ‘Edit Post’ or ‘Edit Page’ screen.
If you can’t see any revisions on the screen, check the ‘Revisions’ option in Screen Options at top-right of the page.
If you can’t see the ‘Revisions’ option in the menu, I guess you still don’t have any revisions. So edit the post (page) and save it first.

TOR doesn’t remove revisions on publication.

‘Delete revisions on initial publication’ feature is effective only when you first publish the post from ‘draft’ status.
It has no effects if you had once published the post and changed it to ‘draft’ status later.
Also no effects on auto-saved revisions.

Where is text input form for Revision Memo?

It will appear in ‘Edit Post’ (‘Edit Page’) screen. Make sure that you check the ‘Revision Memo’ screen option in the page.

Why did some options disappear in TOR 1.3

In version 3.6, WordPress has improved its revision management feature.
As a result, WordPress 3.6 stops creating unnecessary revisions during quick editing and bulk editing.
So some options became needless.

May 6, 2015

• Compatibility information updated.

1.8.3 – Mar 28, 2015

• [Fixed] PHP Undefined index error during Add New.

1.8.2 – Jan 22, 2015

• [Fixed] JavaScript undefined error causing failure to switch between Visual and Text mode on the Edit screen in WordPress 4.0 (and possibly prior versions).

1.8.1 – Jan 16, 2015

• Custom post type support.
• Updated French language resource. Thanks to mister klucha.

1.8 – Dec 20, 2014

• Now you can use the memo editor also in the revision comparison screen.
• WordPress 4.1 compatible.
• Thanks for all reviewers and users. You encouraged me a lot. I wish all of you a merry christmas and a happy new year!

1.7.2 – Oct 4, 2014

• [Fixed] An Ajax error on IIS servers.
• Japanese resources.

1.7.1 – Sep 18, 2014

• [Fixed] Now the memo list shows user display_name instead of user_nicename.
• Now DL tags for the memo list have a class attribute, ‘hm-tor-memo-list’.

1.7 – Aug 27, 2014

• A new feature to show Revision Memos on a post. Check details (English, Japanese). It is still an experimental implementation. It’s a subject to change.
• WordPress 4.0 compliant

1.6 – Apr 13, 2014

• Now you can edit memos for old revisions.
• Added a button to copy from the current memo.
• Required WordPress 3.6 or later. WP 3.5 and prior are no longer supported.

1.5.2 – Jan 11, 2014

• Updated French resource.
• Better description and Japanese translation for the plugin list page.

1.5 – Dec 17, 2013

• [NOTICE] This release (1.5.x) will be the last version to support WordPress 3.5 and prior.
• A new feature to thin out including the ‘From’ revision.
• French resource included. Thanks to mister klucha. But some translations especially for the new feature are made by the author using auto translator. Don’t blame him and tell the author improved translation.
• WordPress 3.8 compatible.

1.4 – Nov 6, 2013

• New feature to delete old revisions as old as or older than assigned days. You can do it on the fly or daily as a scheduled task.

1.3.6 – Sep 2, 2013

• [Fixed] Improper operation of the ‘Delete revisions on initial publication’ feature in WP 3.6.

1.3.5 – Aug 3, 2013

• [Fixed] Broken behavior in WP 3.5. Sorry for frequent update.

1.3.3 – Aug 3, 2013

• Adjusting Revision Memo behavior for better handling in posts published prior to 3.6

1.3.2 – Aug 3, 2013

• Following latest changes in WP 3.6.
• More stable operation.
• Fixed a bug of duplicate memos.

1.3.1 – July 17, 2013

• Following latest changes in WP 3.6.
• No improper warnings on records other than pages and posts (WP 3.6).

1.3 – Jun 2, 2013

• WordPress 3.6 compliant. WP 3.6 users have to upgrade to this version. Also WP 3.5 users can use this version.

1.2 – Feb 23, 2013

• New feature called ‘Revision Memo’
• Some minor fixes
• Now screenshots are not included in the ZIP file.

1.1.1 – Feb 17, 2013

• [Fixed] more proper operation of once-published flag. Update needed for users who use the feature of ‘Delete revisions on initial publication’
• A better interactive message to avoid unintended execution

1.1 – Dec 14, 2012

• Added the ‘Disable revisioning while quick editing’ feature
• Added the ‘Disable revisioning while bulk editing’ feature
• Added the ‘Delete revisions on initial publication’ feature
• The result message after deleting revisions is now colored

1.0 – Nov 11, 2012

• The version number is now 1.0. Though it’s not a substantial change, many people will feel it sounds very formal.
• Better visual effects on deleted revisions. Now you can easily identify them.
• [Bug fix] The number of deleted revisions is corrected to show a real deleted number.
• Now the code is using a class. No impact for end users.
• Other some minor changes for stable operation.

0.8 – Oct 1, 2012

• The first version introduced in wordpress.org repository.